Welp, I think my deck might be the best deck in Standard. lol
Round 1: Junk vs. Boros Aggro
(Now that I've started main-boarding so much life-gain, I actually enjoy playing against Aggro decks; I win the first-game 80% of the time.)
Game 1: I was on the play and my opponent dropped three copies of Boros Elite by the end of his second turn. Undeterred, however, I smashed a Centaur Healer into the board, declined blocks, passed my turn, and smashed a Restoration Angel into the board, restoring a bit of my life total. I blocked up two of his creatures and no Searing Spear or Boros Charm was cast. Thragtusk hit the board the next turn and, although, he still had Battalion triggering with a fresh Silverblade Paladin, I was gaining too much life each turn for him to recklessly turn his dudes sideways.
Game 2: Farseek into Rhox Faithmender into Thragtusk into two Centaur Healers, followed up by a Vault of the Archangel on the next turn. I surpassed 50 life and he scooped with 3 cards in his hand.
2-0
Round 2: Junk vs. B/W Tempo
(I took a look at his deck after the match and it was almost a card-for-card copy of Zandl's B/W Tempo. -shrug-)
Game 1: He missed his fourth land-drop and I jumped ahead with Obzedat, Ghost Council. He kept casting lone Vampire Nighthawks, but one-for-one removal of little dudes in my specialty. Ghost-Dad drained him from 20 to 0 in a matter of turns.
Game 2: I ran Garruk, Primal Hunter onto the board turn-5 with a Restoration Angel for defense. +1, +1, +1, -6 when he only had 3 Swamps for a possible Mutilate, and the game was over.
4-0
Round 3: Junk vs. Selesnya Aggro
(Loxodon Smiter and Silverblade Paladin and Sublime Archangel and whatnot - serious stuff.)
Game 1: Kept three copies of Centaur Healer, an Abrupt Decay, and 3 dual-lands. Drew into a second Abupt Decay and then all three copies of Lingering Souls in a row. I won simply with my overwhelmingly large army.
Game 2: Silverblade Paladin is a card with the potential to be extremely powerful, but Soulbond is very weak to removal, especially when it means you declare attacks with Double-Strike but then deal damage without it. Spot-removal against Soulbond is almost always going to be a two-for-one. She played a Sublime Archangel with 2 copies of Avacyn's Pilgrim out, but it was right before my seventh land-drop and Angel of Serenity.
6-0
Round 4: Junk vs. Esper Control
Game 1: Took two mulligans to 5 cards on the draw. We probably went through 20 turns of my Obzedat, Ghost Council draining his life and then him gaining life through his Blind Obedience. At three different point in this game, I had about 30 power on the board and he'd rip the Wrath he needed. With 4 cards left in my library and a lone Nephalia Drownyard staring me down, the game just came down to: I win right now or I lose. He drew a card, milled himself with Drownyard, and conceded. It wasn't until gearing up for the second game that I realized the only reason I wasn't dead was that I started with 5 cards, meaning I had 2 extra in my deck. lol
Game 2: Sided in Duress, Acidic Slime, Golgari Charm, Staff of Nin, Witchbane Orb, Deathrite Shaman, Appetite for Brains, and Planar Cleansing. Sure, go ahead and argue that you shouldn't change your deck that much. But when Centaur Healer, Devour Flesh, and Unburial Rites do nothing (since I know his preferred graveyard hate is Purify the Grave), it turns my deck into Esper control's worst nightmare. Acidic Slime resolved and blew up his only Drownyard on the field, he used AEtherize on a pre-existing Restoration Angel and Obzedta, Ghost Council, I flickered Slime with Restoration Angel, blew up one of his two Blue sources, he used Detention Sphere on Slime, I used Golgari Charm on that, blew up his remaining Blue source, and he scooped it up.
8-0
Round 5: Junk vs. Experiment Jund
(Having been walking around after finishing my rounds, I saw this guy siding in Olivia Voldaren against midrange decks. Sometimes, all you need at a tournament is one little free piece of information like this to ensure a win.)
Game 1: A pair of Centaur Healers led the way and heralded Obzedat's arrival on turn-5. I was already at 9 by the time he hit, even with the Healers, but a follow-up Thragtusk off the top of the deck pushed me well out of the danger-zone. Obzedat, Ghost Council drained him down low enough to swing with everything in the final turn.
Game 2: Sided in Selesnya Charm, Appetite for Brains (he had Hellrider in addition to Olivia Voldaren), and Rhox Faithmender. I saw none of that crap, though, and Unburial Rites from-hand and flashback on a Centaur Healer, oddly, was just enough stability for me to stave off his assault and cast an Earth-shattering Angel of Serenity to wipe his board clean. It's a funny format when an otherwise-Vanilla 3/3 Common is the driving force in your deck.
10-0
Split into Top 8.
Top 8: Junk vs. Gruul Aggro
Game 1: Played, like, 3 Thragtusks and 2 Restoration Angels by my seventh turn. He had nothing to stop it.
Game 2: Had to mulligan to 5 on the draw and simply got overwhelmed by Hellrider following a 3-creature blitz from Burning-Tree Emissary. Sadly, not even the almighty Centaur Healer could stop that. This was my first loss of the night.
Game 3: He led with a Strangleroot Geist, I cast Lingering Souls, he cast a second Geist and swung into the Spirits, making the Geists Undead. Rhox Faithmender is really good, though, and Obzedat, Ghost Council on the next turn gave me 4 life to play with before phasing out EoT. After two turns, or so, of Ghost Council beating my opponent over the head, he went on the defensive and my life soared into the 30-range. That was all she wrote.
12-1
Top 4 prize-split, I was handily sitting in first place with, like, an 86% win-percentage (splitting and stuff - I know). If there weren't a larger tournament the following morning (which, as I type this, I need to actually get to rather soon), I would've played all the way to last-man-standing. This deck was incredible. I've never played anything with so much synergy, resiliency, and power behind it. I'm truly proud to call this my own brew and you'll find out soon enough how well it does in today's Arizona Magic Invitational Qualifier.
